Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

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Cooke, Charles L. "Doc"
Birth Year
: 1887
Death Year
: 1958
Born in Louisville, KY, Charles Lee Cooke earned a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in music from the Chicago College of Music in 1926. He was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in music. He began writing music compositions when he was a child in Louisville and had organized an eight piece band by the time he was 15. His family moved to Detroit, MI, when he was 18. Cooke played the piano and was the conductor and director of the Chicago Dreamland Ballroom Orchestra during the 1920s. He was better known as a conductor than for his playing. When his career as a conductor in Chicago ended, Cooke moved to New York, where he was an arranger at R.K.O. and Radio City Music Hall. According to his WWI Draft Registration Card, Charles Lee Cooke was born 09/03/1887. For more see Charles "Doc" Cooke at redhotjazz.com; Charles "Doc" Cooke at Answers.com; and Doc Cook [Cooke, Charles L.] at Grove Music Online. View image and listen to Doc Cook's Dreamland Ballroom Orchestra - Sidewalk Blues (1926) on YouTube.